Russia considers biggest population redistribution since Stalin

The Kremlin is considering pushing ahead with the biggest geographical redistribution of its population since Josef Stalin's forced deportations of entire nationalities in the 1940s.

Under the plans, which were leaked to the daily Vedomosti newspaper, the majority of Russia's 141 million-strong population would be concentrated in just twenty urban centres rather than sparsely spread out over one fifth of the earth's surface as is now the case.

At the moment, ninety per cent of Russia's towns are relatively small with a population of 100,000 people or less, many of them in remote locations. The leaked plan said such places had "no future" and were not worth developing.

Instead, it proposed relocating people to twenty giant agglomerations where Russia's main natural resources such as oil and gas were located....